SpaceX workers who criticized CEO Elon Musk for being a ‘distraction and embarrassment’ were illegally fired in retaliation, NLRB alleges

A regional director of the Nationwide Labor Relations Board issued a criticism in opposition to SpaceX Wednesday, alleging that the corporate illegally interrogated, surveilled and retaliated in opposition to employees, company spokesperson Kayla Blado mentioned in an e mail. The fired employees embody authors of a 2022 open letter protesting “inappropriate, disparaging, sexually charged feedback on Twitter” by Musk, their attorneys wrote after they introduced the case in 2022.

The NLRB’s criticism alleges that SpaceX administration instructed employees it had terminated the workers due to their open letter, restricted others from distributing it, and threatened terminations in the event that they engaged in collective motion, Blado mentioned.

“At SpaceX the rockets could also be reusable however the individuals who construct them are handled as expendable,” one of many employees, Paige Holland-Thielen, mentioned in an emailed assertion. “I’m hopeful these costs will maintain SpaceX and its management accountable for his or her lengthy historical past of mistreating employees and stifling discourse.”

The corporate, formally generally known as House Exploration Applied sciences Corp., didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

A trial is ready to start March 5, the NLRB mentioned. 

In June 2022, a gaggle of workers circulated an open letter although inner SpaceX communication channels criticizing Musk’s on-line conduct and calling on the corporate to denounce and distance itself from his public feedback.

“Elon’s conduct within the public sphere is a frequent supply of distraction and embarrassment for us, notably in latest weeks,” the letter said.

Shortly after the letter circulated inside SpaceX, a number of workers related to drafting the letter had been fired.

Complaints issued by NLRB prosecutors are thought of by company judges, whose rulings might be appealed to the NLRB members in Washington, after which to federal court docket. The company has the authority to order firms to reinstate fired employees and supply again pay, however usually can’t maintain executives personally chargeable for alleged wrongdoing or concern any punitive damages.

Federal regulation protects workers’ proper to speak and protest collectively about their working circumstances, with or with no union. 

Whereas Musk has declared himself a “free speech absolutist,” his firms have repeatedly been accused by the US authorities of attempting to silence employees. Final yr, SpaceX settled a declare that it illegally tried to stifle an worker’s speech. Individually, Musk’s social media firm X settled with a former worker who a NLRB regional director had concluded was illegally fired for protesting a return-to-office mandate. NLRB members have additionally dominated that Musk’s electrical carmaker Tesla Inc. illegally fired an activist and that Musk threatened employees on social media; Tesla is interesting in federal court docket.